Grip strengthener with therapy ball

ABSTRACT

A grip strengthener with therapy ball includes a resilient pad and ball. The pad is flat and has at least one side surface, a top surface, a bottom surface, a ball mount and a finger slit. The ball mount is defined through the pad and has an inner edge. The finger slit is defined in the top surface of the pad between the ball mount and one of the at least one side surface. The ball is mounted detachably in the ball mount of the pad and has an outer surface, a mounting groove, a top side and a bottom side. The mounting groove is defined around the outer surface of the ball and engages the inner edge of the ball mount in the pad. The top side and the bottom side respectively protrude the top surface and the bottom surface of the pad.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a grip strengthener, and moreparticularly to a grip strengthener with therapy ball.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventional grip strengtheners and therapy balls use resilient orelastic objects such as springs or rubber and are squeezed or rolled toexercise a person's hand for strengthening the person's wrist, fingersand arm to build gripping strength for sports or recover from injury.

A conventional therapy ball is repeatedly gripped tightly and releasedby a person to exercise their fingers. With reference to FIG. 6, aconventional grip strengthener (40) is used to strengthen a person'swrist, is palm-sized, flat and has four side surfaces, a top surface anda finger slit (41). Each side surface is concave to correspond to aperson's fingers and thumb. The finger slit (41) is defined in the topsurface of the conventional grip strengthener (40) near one of the sidesurfaces. So the person can insert several fingers into the finger slit(41) and place other fingers on a side surface of the conventional gripstrengthener (40) opposite to the thumb. Then the person can curl thefingers in the finger slit (41) to grip the conventional gripstrengthener (40) and exercise the person's wrist. However, both theconventional grip strengthener and therapy ball focus on one area. Ifthe person wants to exercise both their wrist and fingers, the personmust buy both the conventional grip ball and grip strengthener (40) andperform two sets of exercises.

To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a gripstrengthener to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a gripstrengthener with therapy ball that can exercise a person's wrist andfingers.

A grip strengthener with therapy ball in accordance with the presentinvention comprises a resilient pad and ball. The pad is flat and has atleast one side surface, a top surface, a bottom surface, a ball mountand a finger slit. The ball mount is defined through the pad and has aninner edge. The finger slit is defined in the top surface of the padbetween the ball mount and one of the at least one side surface. Theball is mounted detachably in the ball mount of the pad and has an outersurface, a mounting groove, a top side and a bottom side. The mountinggroove is defined around the outer surface of the ball and engages theinner edge of the ball mount of the pad. The top side and the bottomside of the ball protrude respectively from the top surface and thebottom surface of the pad. The grip strengthener with therapy ball canbe used together to exercise a person's wrist and fingers or separatedto focus an exercise on the fingers or the wrist.

Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention willbecome more apparent from the following detailed description when takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a grip strengthener withtherapy ball in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view in partial section of the grip strengthener inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an operational side view in partial section of the gripstrengthener with therapy ball in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an operational side view in partial section of the gripstrengthener with therapy ball in FIG. 2 being used against a hardsurface;

FIG. 5 is an operational perspective view of a ball of the gripstrengthener with therapy ball in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is an operational perspective view of a conventional grip pad inaccordance with the prior art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 1, a grip strengthener with therapy ball inaccordance with the present invention comprises a pad (10) and a ball(20).

The pad (10) may be rubber or silicone, is flat, resilient and has atleast one side surface, a top surface, a bottom surface, a ball mount(13) and a finger slit (14). The top surface is larger than each one ofthe at least one side surface and corresponds to the bottom surface. Theball mount (13) is defined through the pad (10), has an inner edge andmay be circular. The inner edge of the ball mount (13) may be convex.The finger slit (14) is defined in the top surface of the pad (10)between the ball mount (13) and one of the at least one side surface forinserting of a person's fingers. Preferably, the pad (10) has four sidesurfaces and each side surface is concave for gripping of the person'sfingers.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the ball (20) is resilient, may berubber or silicone, is mounted detachably in the ball mount (13) in thepad (10) and has an outer surface, a mounting groove (21), a top sideand a bottom side. The mounting groove (21) is defined around the outersurface of the ball (20) and engages the inner edge of the ball mount(13) of the pad (10). The top side and the bottom side of the ball (20)protrude respectively from the top surface and the bottom surface of thepad (10).

With further reference to FIG. 3, when the person wants to exercisetheir wrist and fingers at the same time, the person places his/herthumb on one of the at least one side surface of the pad (10) andinserts his/her fingers into the finger slit (14) of the pad (10). Thenthe grip strengthener with therapy ball is repeatedly gripped tightlyand released to exercise the person's fingers. People with differentpalm sizes can place their thumb at different positions of the pad (10)for a comfortable grip.

With further reference to FIG. 4, when the person only wants to exercisetheir wrist, the person can put the grip strengthener with therapy ballon a solid surface such as a desk, table or floor and push his/her palmagainst the ball (20) in different directions.

With further reference to FIG. 5, when the person only wants to exercisetheir fingers, the person can remove the ball (20) from the pad (10) andalternately grips and releases the ball (20) with his/her fingers. Theball (20) can be materials of different resiliences. When the person hasa higher finger strength after practicing, the person can exercisehis/her fingers with a ball (20) of less resilience to keep improvingthe finger strength. The ball (20) can also be switched for people ofdifferent finger strengths, such as adults and children.

The grip strengthener with therapy ball can exercise a person's wristand fingers at the same time, so the person needs not to buy both aconventional therapy ball and a grip strengthener. Using the gripstrengthener with therapy ball is also convenient because the personexercises different parts of the hand at the same time.

Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the presentinvention have been set forth in the foregoing description, togetherwith details of the structure and function of the invention, thedisclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in detail,especially in matters of shape, size and arrangement of parts within theprinciples of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broadgeneral meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.

1. A grip strengthener with therapy ball comprising a pad beingresilient, flat and having at least one side surface; a top surfacebeing larger than each one of the at least one side surface; a bottomsurface corresponding to the top surface; a ball mount being definedthrough the pad and having an inner edge; and a finger slit beingdefined in the top surface of the pad between the ball mount and one ofthe at least one side surface; and a ball being resilient, mounteddetachably in the ball mount of the pad and having an outer surface; amounting groove being defined around the outer surface of the ball andengaging the inner edge of the ball mount in the pad; a top sideprotruding from the top surface of the pad; and a bottom side protrudingfrom the bottom surface of the pad.
 2. The grip strengthener withtherapy ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inner edge of the ballmount is convex.
 3. The grip strengthener with therapy ball as claimedin claim 1, wherein the pad has four side surfaces and each side surfaceis concave.
 4. The grip strengthener with therapy ball as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the ball mount is circular.
 5. The grip strengthenerwith therapy ball as claimed in claim 2, wherein the pad has four sidesurfaces and each side surface is concave.
 6. The grip strengthener withtherapy ball as claimed in claim 3, wherein the ball mount is circular.7. The grip strengthener with therapy ball as claimed in claim 4,wherein the inner edge of the ball mount is convex.